For my people wit skill on the keys.

I was wonderin for the people or can really play the piano or keyboards what do u think about the MPC 1000 ablilty to record keys through Midi. Also have anyone tired to record a complex piano song through the MPC 1000 like some Alica Keys, Stevie Wonder or Herbie Hancock would play.

Dominique wrote:I was wonderin for the people or can really play the piano or keyboards what do u think about the MPC 1000 ablilty to record keys through Midi. Also have anyone tired to record a complex piano song through the MPC 1000 like some Alica Keys, Stevie Wonder or Herbie Hancock would play.

Whilst it is possible with a lot of tweaking and hard work, I'd throughly recommend getting something more capable, be it a synth or a proper sampler like an Akai S or Z Series. MPC's are drum and phrase samplers and not designed for that task. Not bad for a few single notes but hardly up to the task of emulating a proper synth or piano.

but it can record the midi notes for use with an outboard sampler/soundmodule.

Mr modnaR wrote:but it can record the midi notes for use with an outboard sampler/soundmodule.

Indeed. It's a very capable MIDI sequencer

Dominique wrote:what do u think about the MPC 1000 ablilty to record keys through Midi.

If it can be done in reason it should be able to be done with the MPC. The Sequencers are the same. I think u just have to know what ur doing.

I record all my midi notes in a JJOS MPC1k and then these notes are used to play my akai S5000 and DSI evolver.
The MPC is a midi sequencer remember, yeah it's a drum machine, but is also a sequencer!
TBH the JJOS midi grid edit was the reason I chose MPC. It's not worth doing midi tweaking on it without that feature, might as well use a MMT8 or some other ancient wreck or just use a computer [shudder] if you can stand all your creativity being zapped quickly.

Normal work flow is have drums n stuff done on MPC then turn on S5000 and midi keyboard and do melodies and stuff on that.

As a midi sequencer, a JJOS MPC is great. If you really want to do anal midi tweaking then get most of the stuff down on the MPC then send the .mid to a PC and edit it in a midi editor.
I would suggest the MPC over a PC because it breeds creativity, unlike PC software, which seems to zap it (for me at least).

I have recently been fortunate enough to work with a word class pianist who was classically trained. I record his work via MIDI on the 4K with no problems. Obviously I leave the quantize off when recording his work but I frequently will go back and use quantize on short segments that are "a bit off" - I'll also use step edit to remove the occassional "stray" note....all in all, I think the MPC does a great job capturing his preformance. I do find it necessary to turn the velocity settings down a bit, but that may be my controller or he may just be a bit heany handed. Either way, I certianly get more of his dynamic feel without velocity set to 100..

fader-pro wrote:I have recently been fortunate enough to work with a word class pianist who was classically trained. I record his work via MIDI on the 4K with no problems. Obviously I leave the quantize off when recording his work but I frequently will go back and use quantize on short segments that are "a bit off" - I'll also use step edit to remove the occassional "stray" note....all in all, I think the MPC does a great job capturing his preformance. I do find it necessary to turn the velocity settings down a bit, but that may be my controller or he may just be a bit heany handed. Either way, I certianly get more of his dynamic feel without velocity set to 100..

Hey fader-pro, if you don't mind me asking, was a piano-weighted or semi-weighted controller used to record this performance?

Both a Kurzwiel PC88 which is an 88 weighted controler and surprisingly a Korg Karma.....he (the pianist) claims that he'd just as soon use the Karma unless he's actually playing a classical piece that needs the full range of the piano. He can actually play faster on the Karma as a piano requires you to wait for the weighted key to bounce back up....We're doing jazz with a full band BTW so he's not really needing to hold down the bottom with his playing......

I gotcha, I think we keyboard players call it "playing with a little fineness". When you're hyped off of jazz, you need something a little lighter than those hammer-action boards.